Luke Milbourne or Milbourn (1649–1720) was an English clergyman, known as a
High Church
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...
supporter of
Henry Sacheverell
Henry Sacheverell (; 8 February 1674 – 5 June 1724) was an English high church Anglican clergyman who achieved nationwide fame in 1709 after preaching an incendiary 5 November sermon. He was subsequently impeached by the House of Commons and ...
, and also as a critic and poet.
Life
He was the son of Luke Milbourne (1622–1668), an
ejected minister
The Great Ejection followed the Act of Uniformity 1662 in England. Several thousand Puritan ministers were forced out of their positions in the Church of England, following The Restoration of Charles II. It was a consequence (not necessarily ...
who was the incumbent of
Wroxhall,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
, where he was born. His mother's name was Phœbe. The antiquarian John Nelson states that the family lived at
Newington Green
Newington Green is an open space in North London that straddles the border between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and ...
, well known for its
dissenting academies
The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...
, where they kept a boarding school; Phoebe taught, because her husband was barred from doing so.
The younger Luke was educated at
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge
Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...
, where he matriculated in 1667, and graduated B.A. in 1670. After graduating he appears to have held chaplaincies to the English merchants at
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, postal ...
and at
St Mary's Church, Rotterdam
St Mary's Church or the English Church ( nl, Engelse Kerk) is an Anglican church in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It is part of the Archdeaconry of North West Europe in the Diocese in Europe of the Church of England.
History
In 1635 an Englis ...
.
He was afterwards at
Harwich, and was beneficed in the beginning of William III's reign at
Great Yarmouth. There he associated much with
Rowland Davies, later dean of Cork, and wrote a lampoon on the town, entitled ''Ostia''. In 1688 he had become lecturer of
St Leonard's, Shoreditch, and in 1704 he succeeded Samuel Harris as rector of
St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate. He is 'the priest of the church of England and rector of a church in the city of London' who, in a published ''Letter'' (1713) to
Roger Laurence
Roger Laurence (1670–1736) was an English nonjuring priest and controversialist.
Life
The son of Roger Laurence, armorer, he was born 18 March 1670, and admitted on the royal mathematical foundation to Christ's Hospital in April 1679, from the w ...
, author of ''Lay Baptism Invalid'', rejected the validity of lay baptism by the authority of Calvin and of French Protestant writers.
Many of his numerous printed sermons touched on the martyrdom of Charles I, and enforcing the duty of
passive obedience
Passive obedience is a religious and political doctrine, which states that people have a moral duty to obey the law, in particular accepting punishment as part of this obedience.
George Berkeley
The most notable publication describing this doctr ...
. After listening to one of Milbourne's high-flying sermons in January 1713, Bishop
White Kennett
White Kennett (10 August 166019 December 1728) was an English bishop and antiquarian. He was educated at Westminster School and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including ...
asked indignantly 'why he did not stay in Holland?’ and 'why he is suffered to stay in England?’
He died in London 15 April 1720.
Critic
Milbourne is mainly remembered on account of his strictures on
John Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
's translation of
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
, and of the retaliation made upon him both by Dryden, and by
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...
on Dryden's behalf. He was coupled with
Sir Richard Blackmore in Pope's ''
An Essay on Criticism
''An Essay on Criticism'' is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688–1744), published in 1711. It is the source of the famous quotations "To err is human; to forgive, divine", "A little learning is a da ...
'' as the type of all that is contemptible in a critic.
Milbourne attempted an English rendering of Virgil before Dryden. According to an advertisement Milbourne had then issued ''The First Book of Virgil's Æneis made English.'' No copy may be now known. Dryden's translation appeared in 1697, and its success inspired Milbourne's attack on it.
[In his ''Notes on Dryden's Virgil, in a Letter to a Friend, with an Essay on the same Poet'', London, 1698.] In order to demonstrate his own superiority, Milbourne supplemented criticisms by specimens of his own translation of the first and fourth ''
Eclogues
The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.
Background
Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...
'' and the first ''
Georgic
The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...
''. Dryden complained in the preface to the ''Fables'' (1700) that his critic's scurrility was unprovoked. One of Milbourne's avowed reasons for not sparing Dryden was that Dryden had never spared a clergyman. Dryden replied that if he had fallen foul of the priesthood he had only to ask pardon of good priests, and was afraid Milbourne's 'part of the reparation would come to little.' 'I am satisfied,’ he concludes, 'that while he and I live together I shall not be thought the worst poet of the age.' The morals of Milbourne, who, according to Dryden, had lost his living for libelling his parishioners, were severely handled in a poem entitled ''The Pacificator'', 1699.
Works
He contributed Latin verses to ''Lacrymæ Cantabrigienses'', 1670, on the death of
Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans.
Milbourne's other works, apart from 31 single sermons and some tracts, are:
* 'A Short Defence of the Order of the Church of England, by a Presbyter of the Diocese of Norwich' (anon.), 1688.
* 'Mysteries in Religion vindicated, or the Filiation, Deity, and Satisfaction of our Saviour asserted against Socinians and others, with occasional reflections on several late pamphlets,’ London, 1692.
* A metrical version of 'The Imitation of Christ,’ entitled 'The Christian Pattern Paraphrased,’ 1697.
* 'The Psalms of David in English Metre,’ 1698.
* 'Tom of Bedlam's answer to his Brother, Ben Hoadly,’ 1709.
* 'The Moderate Cabal, a Satyr in Verse,’ 1710 (anon.).
* 'The Two Wolves in Lamb's Skins, or Old Eli's sorrowful Lamentations over his two Sons,’ 1716.
* 'A Legacy to the Church of England, vindicating her Orders from the Objections of Papists and Dissenters,’ 2 vols. London, 1722, (posthumous).
Family
A son, Thomas Milbourne, was fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and died in October 1743.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milbourne, Luke
1649 births
1720 deaths
17th-century English Anglican priests
18th-century English Anglican priests
English literary critics
Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
English male poets
English male non-fiction writers